safety

Tesla head Elon Musk has posted a missive to us in the media, who have as a group led consumers to believe the electronic vehicle brand is more fire-prone than gas-powered vehicles. The facts support Musk's claims that Tesla is far and away the safest car brand on the road today. Yet the company is taking matters further by pushing over-the-air software upgrades to the Tesla suspension system and a warranty extension covering fire damage even when the accident is the driver's fault.

A incident at Tesla's Fremont, CA. factory has left three employees injured, the car company has confirmed today. Reports of an explosion were first made by NBC Bay Area, but downplayed by emergency services called to the scene, with a Fremont Fire Department spokesperson blaming "pressurized equipment that they use at the plant" but insisting that "there was no fire - no explosion."

The owner of a Tesla Model S recently survived a catastrophic collision with an errant three-pronged trailer hitch while doing 70 MPH on the Interstate, and wrote an account of his adventure for Tesla Motors' website. The tale tells of a chillingly smart warning system built into the full-size hatchback, a granite-solid undercarriage, and a seemingly fireproof cabin.

Chrysler is the latest auto maker to issue a recall of select models, this one concerning a hefty 1.2 million trucks that could suffer from a loss of steering. The models are compromised of mostly 2003 - 2008 Ram 2500 and Ram 3500 trucks, with the rest being composed of nearer 2008 through 2012 2500/3500/4500/5500 models and Ram 1500 4x4 Mega Cab 2008 models.

A third fire involving Tesla's Model S has prompted renewed calls for a full investigation into the electric car's safety, after the award-winning EV caught alight following a crash earlier this week. The incident, in Smyrna, Tennessee, saw the Model S hit a tow hitch in the middle of a lane on the highway, a spokesperson from Highway Patrol told Bloomberg, in the process "damaging the car’s undercarriage and causing the fire."

Earlier this year, Chrysler agreed to recall over a million Jeeps due to a fire hazard that has, to date, claimed a few dozen lives. Such a recall came after the auto maker originally rejected a recall proposal by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, having stated at that time that the pegged vehicles were "safe and not defective." For reasons unknown, the recall has not taken place despite several months having passed.

Self-driving cars could cut crash and road injury rates by 90-percent and save the US economy by around $450bn each year, a new thinktank report suggests, though the technology risks being hamstrung by expensive components and a "disparate patchwork" of regulations. The independent research by the Eno Center for Transportation into autonomous vehicles such as Google's self-driving cars and similar projects from Nissan, Toyota, Mercedes and others argues that, since driver error is calculated to be the primary reason behind more than 90-percent of crashes, removing humans from their responsibility behind the wheel could save a huge amount of lives and money.

Motorcycle helmets are definitely going high-tech in an effort to improve safety and offer riders more connectivity when cruising down the highway. A company called Skully Helmets has unveiled the latest high-tech helmet called the Skully P1 and it's very impressive. One of the key features of the helmet is an integrated rearview camera.

Although a number of companies, which include Google, are setting their eyes forward to the future with fully or partially self-driving automobiles, car manufacturers still have their feet planted firmly on the ground of present-day concerns, which, of course, includes road safety. Responding to the need for safer driving and car technologies, Toyota has developed a system that brings the dream of an automated driving assistance of the future to answer the problems of today.

Smart thermostat company Nest has revealed its second intelligent home device, the Nest Protect, a WiFi-enabled smoke and carbon monoxide detector. Aiming to do the same for home safety as the original Nest does for HVAC control, the Nest Protect tracks potential perils, warns you with both an spoken audio alert and pings to your iOS or Android device, and even notifies other Nest equipment so that they can respond too.